Managing the implementation of the strategy in IT

With ever more increasing disruptive requirements and reduced time to market, IT managers are finding that traditional methods of planning and implementation are not as effective as they used to be. A number of factors are affecting the quick and effective implementation of strategies that is demanded in today's competitive environment:
1. Knowledge of the infrastructure and how it provides value is frequently overlooked when defining the strategy.
2. The implemented IT architecture rarely has the flexibility required by the organization to respond rapidly to varying market conditions and requirements.
3. IT managers usually try to adapt their infrastructure and resist disruptive measures when the situation requires it, due to cost and service-level considerations.
4. Business stakeholders have a hard time implementing changes in the organization due to resistance in their rank and file, and their dependency on IT.
5. It is difficult for businesses to find the right balance between incorporating manual procedures and implementing equivalent functionality in applications, that would minimize time to market and maximize flexibility.

In order for IT to navigate the tidal wave of requirements it must adapt to the situation at hand. This means that IT must:
1. Adapt its operations and methodologies to the varying requirements of the business strategy.
2. Implement mechanisms to plan, control and execute project activities and deliverables.
3. Manage IT professionals in such a way that it can leverage its internal resources as much as possible while taking advantage of the knowledge and expertise provided by consultants.
4. Ensure that the scope of projects are kept in line with business requirements.
5. Keep costs within planned parameters.
6. Ensure quality levels.
7. Find a balance between minimizing the impact on current operations and reducing the time to market of new business solutions.
8. Establish alliances and close relationships with suppliers that will benefit the business.
9. Mitigate risks and their impact on operations.
10. Implement and use key performance indicators to manage the operations at all times.

How Does IT Provide A Consistently Effective Service

This presentation is a complement to the previous blog entry and deals with implementing standards required by IT to maintain consistent levels of service:

How Does It Provide A Consistently Effective Service

View more presentations from Justo Stoll.

How does IT provide a consistently effective service? (Part II)

When implementing standards, businesses have a number of frameworks and models that can be used as references such as:

• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).
• Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI).
• Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK).

These reference models provide guides based on processes, tools, roles and responsibilities that can be used to define in-house standards and methodologies. These in-house standards should be defined around:

• Business objectives such as quality standards and response times.
• Business processes that require improvement and consistent levels of service.
• Metrics that will be used to measure and control the behavior of processes.

Once in-house standards and methodologies have been defined with clear objectives, processes, tools, metrics, roles and responsibilities, the business can start training and implementation. If the business so chooses it can carry out a series of tests and audits to demonstrate that it has achieved varying levels of industry accepted standards.